A few cold months ago, I had the pleasure of teaching a one-day shoemaking workshop to Rhode Island School of Design students who had just the previous day returned from a shoe-design trip to Italy. Kathleen Grevers, Senior Critic, Apparel Design, and Khipra Nichols, Associate Professor, Industrial Design, shepherded twenty design students from a variety of …
One more “First Walker” shoes for children post
Here’s a photo of a couple of pairs of “First Walker” shoes that my daughter made for members of her “birth board”. (In case you don’t know about this phenomenon, it’s a way for pregnant women to communicate on the WEB with others around the country who are expecting babies around the same time).
Baby shoes made from T-shirts!
There was a recent request on a forum I’m on for prom dresses for girls who need them, and my mind went to the “T-shirt wedding dress” I had seen in a book I frequently consult, “Generation T – 108 ways to transform a T-shirt”. Making things from T-shirts is my second most-favorite thing to …
The smallest shoes I have ever made
Now that I have a grandchild, I will be learning a lot more about what size of shoe a child wears at a certain age, and what fits and what doesn’t – here’s Millie in the smallest-size shoe from How to Make Simple Shoes for Children with your own two hands!, which is for a …
Concern and response regarding use of chrome-tanned leather
Greetings all, I just received this email, and consider the topic so important that I am answering it in this blog-post. I have removed the name of the sender. HI SHARON, I really appreciate your shoe designs and patterns and your generosity in making them available online. I’m hoping to get back to experimenting with …
alpargatas, espardenyers, espadrilles, and a German shoemaking manual!
What riches! Today I happened upon http://ofdreamsandseams.blogspot.co.at, where I discovered a “sole mate”! That is, a woman who is fascinated by all kinds of techniques for making shoes, and who no doubt finds solutions for shoemaking puzzlements while cogitating between 2 and 3am, as do I. I like the blogger Katya’s moccasin-making technique; I planned to …
Multi-color boots better than ever!
I made myself a pair of brown boots with laces several years ago. Unfortunately I didn’t make the pattern quite right, so even when the laces were laced as tightly as possible, the boots still had too much room in them. I didn’t like the way the sides slumped down, so one day I decided …
Shoe Design at Rhode Island School of Design
What a joy it was to walk around the classroom and see the sketches of shoes made by Rhode Island School of Design students who had returned the previous day from a Shoe Design tour of Italy. I had the thought, “how can there be a fresh way of looking at footwear, as so many …
Shoes for Natalie
I love the work of Natalie Chanin (www.alabamachanin.com) and how she has shared the details of her hand-stitching process in three inspirational books. Adopting her nonchalance, I no longer concern myself if the ends of my threads are visible on the outside of my work – which is a big boon to a shoemaker since …